Is that laughter I here?

[Longbow Jake]

When I went out last Saturday for opening day here in Ohio the leaves were wet so being quiet was easy so I decided to do some still hunting.I was feelin good and spoted a deer feeding away from me and it just so happens there was a clump of tall grass about 15 yards from the deer and if I stayed low enough there was pretty much no way it could see me.
So Im sneakin my way up to it and the hole time It feels like every animal in the woods and everyone in heaven is watchin and laughin at me and how goofy I gota look at this point hahaa.So The deer does end up spottin me     .But my question is anybody else feel this way when putin a stalk on an animal? Or am I just goofyer than I thought lol?

[Ragnarok Forge]

No one is watching you.  If they are looking your giving them a lesson in how a real hunter pursues game on the ground so let em watch.

[bornagainbowhunter]

I had a guy watch me stalk a deer in MO once.  I started the stalk at about 150 yards.  I got to within about 12 yards when I killed it.  It was a small buck, but a real cool stalk.  I later found out that there was a guy in a stand several hundred yards away that seen the whole thing.  

When I got back to the parking area with the deer, he was telling everyone about it, only he thought I was a moron for stalking.  When the 3 other guys started asking me about the whole deal and telling me that they would loved to have watched a guy with a bow like that (longbow) stalk and kill a deer, I got a real kick out of it.  They didn't know a stick bow could even kill a deer.

The fella told me how silly I was for hunting with a "kids bow" and not a compound.  He said, "Mine is 56 # and 65% let off, I used to shoot a bow like that when I was a kid, but I grew up".  I guess I should have let him draw my 70# Robertson.  

That is the only time I have been bad mouthed for my longbow.  Sure, I have frinds that joke about it and some that would like to try it, but never before sassed for 10 minutes, needlessly.    

[Eugene Slagle]

All the guys on the hunt club at first thought I was nuts for going old school on my archery gear but with their past experience of me & how dedicated & diligent I am they shut up pretty quick & hope to see me get one on my truck.

[Longbow Jake]

Yeah a old man aggravated  me a lil bit just last night after I had just goten permission to hunt his property just six miles from my house. Me and my dads bud where joking around back and forth like we always do cause him hunting with rifles and me a longbow and all he's always tryin to get me to pick up a gun to hunt with but its always fun and games between me and him.
But last night his buddy comes up to us and butts in he was serious to and says yeah I was like you at one time a stupid punk kid who didnt want to listen to the old men but youll grow up one of these days and he proceeds to say the indians lost this country because of bows and high powerd rifles rule all     like that has anything to do with what I choose to hunt with     Nope don't think so but yeah that kinda rubed me the wrong way.

[nybowman]

I've had the same experience, Eugene.Once they seen the dedication and love I had for it, I  was taken more serious. They like to joke with me still, but all in good nature. One friend is now a convert to trad. People don't know about it if they never been near it. Represent our sport with your head up and others will follow.

[Panzer II]

I am currently hunting with 3 other guys, two crossbow shooters and one compound shooter and they all think that me hunting with a Longbow is great. Two of which have expressed their desire to get into Trad bows next year. So you never know. There will always be those people out there who are intimidated by others who choose not to take the easy road.

[xtrema312]

Only when putting the stalk on a decoy.

[Buckeye Trad Hunter]

Originally posted by xtrema312:
Only when putting the stalk on a decoy.

That is too funny!  

[straitera]

Took me back LJ. In 1974, I duckwalked nearly 150 yards in the Texas October heat to within 12 yards of a grazing doe behind some good deadfall. Never worked so hard in my life. Was sweating bullets. When I tried to stand up to shoot my legs started banging like 2 runaway jackhammers. Zero control of them at all. Couldn't have hit that deer with a hand grenade.

[DannyBows]

Bornagainbowhunter--If those fellas had any class they would have been asking for your autograph! The guy in the treestand witnessed "real hunting", and was too blinded by his need for high-tech gear to even recognize it. A 150 yard stalk and kill from 12 yards with a Longbow is the Ultimate Hunt. Even a Doe that way is a trophy. Heck with them fellas', Ishi would have been proud! Lol!

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Never be afraid to try. Great Job! I wish I could've been there to see it, or get it on video!

I did that on a big tom turkey one spring that strutted a 50 yard circle in the middle of a pasture and would not leave that circle....I think he must of had a piece of lead shot stuck in his brain??

Anyway, I belly crawled to him and rose up on my knees at 30 steps and killed him, the stalk took about an hour. You should have seen the look on that tom's face right before I ended his parade.

[Killdeer]

I have heard the deer HOWLING and rolling in the aisles over some of my "technique". I keep hoping that one of them will die laughing.

Killdeer  

[ChuckC]

Nathan. .  seems to me you were the one that got one.  and  you did it the hard way.  I would have very nicely brought that point up.  

I may have said more.  I try to smile and say "thank you" and leave because of that part.

There will always be dissagreement between folks.  Skin color, politics, religion, heck even which brand of cigarettes you smoke.  

Smile and let it go Jake.  There are plenty around who think you do a really neat thing.  

Listen to them.
ChuckC

[JamesV]

Some years back I was invited on a gun hunt for deer with dogs. There was a young man with a recurve and back quiver in the goupe. The dogs jumped and ran in the swamp then quit. Here comes this guy with a big swamp rabbit. Being a recurve shooter myself I was really impressed.